OOC: Another mid-round update, just so you guys know I'm kicking. (Ugh, school is draining me to the bone right now)

As Nate strikes down one of the Portal Keys, his innards start mixing together. In what seems like a chemical reaction, he bursts into a golden shower of sparks. Another golden rift swirls around where it was previously standing.

"Proteccct the keeeeys!" the Arcanist hisses. "They are the pivot in our plan, without them the army cannot traverse forth!"

Monsters

Yeah, the lizard and rider are considered as one (heh...WE ARE ONE \('A')/ Those hivemind things I hear about...)

Sensing weakness in those demons close to him, Malakai's already disturbing visage transforms into a wicked sneering grimace, full of hatred and anger and sadistic glee. The Tiefling lets out a sigh of ecstasy as Dina's magic empowers him once more, and he travels, once again, into that realm of elemental energies within his mind, searching out a large source of power for his spells.

Malakai shouts with a primal laughter that echoes strangely in the forever-scape of the magic bag as he comes upon a river of burning magma that runs over a sheer cliff, creating a deadly but beautiful lava fall that smolders and melts the rocks beneath it. Pulling on its energy harder than he could normally withstand, feeling powerful and confident with Dina's magical assistance, he watches as the magma lake slows, halts, and then freezes over, while his body attempts to withstand the disintegrating temperatures of his energy source.

"De medius ut visio orbis. Profusum per ira. Caedo inimicus mei!"

Again, Malakai feels a connection with the same conduit location where the shards of ice had pierced his magic circle. Waves of heat emanate from the runes on the ground beneath the feet of the lizard and the hungry swarm of maw demons and for just a moment, when the link between Malakai's portal to chaos opens beneath them, they can sense, more than feel, a bubbling font of lava beneath them. However, as predicted by Niks, what came forth was not to be fire, but ice, in a great font of ice and earth that rushed toward the "ceiling" of the magic bag that surrounded them. Hitting that magical upper limit, the gush of frozen lava splays outward like a mushroom cloud and then rains back down in a blizzard-like hail of razor sharp chunks of ice the size of small daggers.

Still feeling a connection to the now-frozen element, Malakai catches a glimpse of the herder, whips brandished and snapping at his enslaved minions. With one last shout at the end of his spell, dagger thrust toward the demon, Malakai pushes his will into the falling ice and sends it flowing toward the whip wielder, piercing and freezing demonic flesh.

While the herder was only minimally hurt by the icy spell, Malakai was satisfied to see that the horde of maw demons were pulled into the icy hazard he had created and shredded until a fine mist of demon viscera lay upon the frozen ground, continuing to be pelted, stabbed, and frozen by the effect of his perpetuating spell. He was also gleefully laughing at the rider and herder in a somewhat shrill voice and yelling at them in a strange language while circling around to Dina's other side, careful to stay near her lest the empowering magic she lent out would not reach him.

Primordial

"Ahahaha! Die pawns of weaklings! Join your master in the depths of chaos and tell him I'm coming for him!"

Actions

Standard Action: Malakai uses Ignition (area burst 1 centered on Q10), targeting S1 and R.Free Action: Malakai uses Elemental Escalation, which allows him to target one additional creature just outside the radius of his area burst, which targets the Herder. E.E. also adds an additional 1d10 damage to each target hit by the attack.

The Swarm and the Rider are both bloodied, so they take an additional 2 damage from Malakai's Crimson Determination. The swarm has vulnerability 10 vs Area/close attacks.

This means that the creatures take the following total damage:

S1: 40 cold damage
R: 30 cold damage
H: 28 cold damage

The area burst 1 creates a zone that lasts until start of Malakai's turn. Any creature that enters the zone or ends its turn there takes 4 fire cold damage. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.
As part of E.E., Malakai is allowed to shift half his speed (3 squares) as a free action, which he uses to shift to L10.